Improvement in making paper



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING PAPER.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 3,362, dated December4, 18-13,

the bark of the wild banana, (Musa textilis.)

We make use, mostly, of the. old junk of what is termed in navigationgrass rope," cutting and picking it, as is usual with other kinds ofpaper-stock. We then buck or boil it with \\'ater in a large kettle,adding lime in the proportion of one barrel to thirty-five hundredweightof stock. \Ve continue the boiling for about twenty-four hours, or untilthe cohesion of the fibers is destroyed. We then put the stock thusprepared into thecngine, and after washing it from one to fourh'ours,according to circumstances, beat it about four hours. The pulpthus prepared we manufacture into paper inany of the usual modes.Instead of lime, we sometimes use potash, soda-ash,or other alkalinesubstances of like properties.

We claim to be the first discoverers of the fact that the gummy,resinous, or other matters which bind together the fibers of thesubstances known as Manila grass may be so dissolved by the process ofboiling in an alkaline lye that the fibers will become separated and amaterial produced capable of being manufactured into paper of the bestdescription.

We do not claim the process herein described as applied to any othermaterials; neither do we claim the employment, in conjunction with otherstock, of a portion of Manila grass reduced to astate of minute divisionbymechanical means alone.

We consequently claim as our invent-ion and desire to secure by LettersPatent- The application of the chemical process of boiling in causticalkaline lye, substantially in the manner herein set forth, to thevegetable substance known as Manila grass, for the purpose of preparin gthe same to be converted 7 into paper.

JOHN M. HOLLINGSWORTH. LYMAN HOLLINGSWORTH.

Witnesses:

R. B. CARTER, CHARLES CRANE.

